Using the SDGs to measure how projects impact sustainability

All over the world governments, companies, public agencies, and utilities have set solid ambitions for supporting sustainable development. However, as some struggle to make the overall ambitions implementable and measurable, Ramboll has developed a highly user-friendly digital assessment tool – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Scoreboard – to help clients concretize their aims within the widely used and generally accepted SDG framework. Created by sustainability specialists in Ramboll’s global Water division, the SDG Scoreboard makes it possible to use the 17 goals – including the targets and indicators related to each of these goals – as key metrics for the project assessment. Such an assessment can provide value in all phases of a project, which could be everything from the design of a new pipeline to a new wastewater treatment and resource recovery plant – from the initial scoping phase to post-project evaluation. “The SDG Scoreboard helps our clients bridge the gap between overall ambition and project-specific execution. The scoreboard can be used to inform discussions and decisions of sustainability-related targets as well as for reporting and documentation purposes throughout all phases of a project,” says Carita Bang, product manager, Ramboll Water. The SDG Scoreboard was formally launched earlier this year, and the client feedback has been very positive so far. While some have used it to guide clear target-setting and reporting, others have used it to get more familiar with the SDG Framework as such. And although the tool has been developed by Ramboll’s water team it is applicable to all kinds of engineering and consultancy projects where sustainability could – or even should – be measured.